In Blade Runner, the most famous science fiction film of all time, in what is
now known as the ”Tears in Rain” soliloquy,[i] the dying replicant, Roy Batty, delivers the following monologue during a drenching downpour at the film's end, moments before his own death:
“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”[ii]
That monologue captures my feelings precisely when I think
about American politics today. We have
seen and are still seeing things you wouldn’t believe. If not time to die, it is at least time to self
deport.
A recent example (only one of many): Representative Paul C. Broun (R. Ga.)
The Georgia Congressman prepared a videotape on September 27,
2012, in which he made an announcement in Hartwell, Georgia, that thrilled his
constituents to the bone.
Broun, a medical doctor, told his adoring audience that current scientific theories are meant to convince people that they do not need a savior.
“God’s word is true. Iv’e come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang theory is lies straight from the pit of hell."[iii]
Braun sits on the
Science, Space, and Technology Committee of the United States House of Representatives.
That committee has jurisdiction over almost all scientific research and development in the United States that is supported
by the government, including environmental and marine research, technology; the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
NASA; the National Science Foundation; National Weather Service; outer space,
science scholarships, etc.
 |
| Science, Space, and Technology Committee |
Representative Paul C. Braun is one of a select
few men in the country in charge of scientific research in the United States.
Need I say more?
Governor Romney advises that if we don’t like what is going
on here in the USA, we should self deport.
[i] Tears In Rain is the
final monologue of the replicant Roy Batty in the movie. It is frequently quoted
and has been described as "perhaps the most moving death soliloquy in
cinematic history". The final form of the speech was improvised by Rutger
Hauer, the actor who delivers it.(Mark Rowlands (2003), The
philosopher at the end of the universe, pp. 234–235).
[iii] Associated
Press.
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